Tag Archives: HTPC

The OpenELEC team has been busy. They just released version OpenELEC 2.0 a few weeks ago, and now we get OpenELEC 3.0 beta 1 that includes XBMC in all of it’s glory 12.0 glory. This includes PVR support, the modern audio engine that now supports formats like TrueHD and DTS-HD, the Linux kernel 3.6 and support for ARM devices in the form of Raspberry Pi boards.

For those of you that are not familiar with OpenELEC it is, for the most part, an unmodified version of XBMC that runs with only the minimum amount of software needed. This makes OpenELEC more stable and easier to use. The setup is even more simplified then the XBMC installer(didn’t think it was needed). Of course if you would still like the flexibility of Ubuntu or Windows under the hood you can still download the installs over at http://XBMC.org. Essentially OpenELEC is a XBMC distro of Linux that can auto update itself.

New Features:

Based on XBMC 12.0 Frodo

ARM Support (Raspberry Pi)

Linux 3.6 kernel

Improved PRV support

Brand New Audio Engine with True HD and DTS-HD support

Updated Drivers

Boot to RAM option

Manual Update Instructions:

Browse to your OpenELEC boxes SAMBA share in operating system of your choice. (if you don’t know what the IP address is, go to the menu of the OpenELEC machine, and browse to the main item “System” and then its subitem “System Info”. This will open a page that shows the IP address among with other information.)

Once you have found the SAMBA share navigate to the “Update” folder. This is where you will copy the files in step 5

Navigate to the “Target” Folder which will be found in the location you extracted the downloaded file.

Copy the files from the “Target” folder to the “Update” folder found on the SAMBA share. The files are KERNEL, KERNEL.md5, SYSTEM and SYSTEM.md5.

Restart OpenELEC and the update will be installed automatically.

When the reboot has finished navigate to the “System > Settings > System > Audio output” menu. Make sure that the output settings properly reflect your receivers capabilities. (ie: Does your receiver support TrueHD?)

XBMC 12.0 “Frodo” Beta 1 has been released to the public, and with it bringing features that many have been waiting years for. This major update brings with it support for Android, Raspberry Pi and Live TV/PVR support.

New Features

HD audio support, including DTS-MA and Dolby True-HD, via the new XBMC AudioEngine